Protecting the Privacy of Information

You have a relationship with one or more of the following HCC Surety Group ("HCCS") of companies: American Contractors Indemnity Company, United States Surety Company and/or U.S. Specialty Insurance Company. Each HCCS company is committed to protecting your privacy by keeping the nonpublic personal information we collect from you confidential and secure. This policy applies to our relationships with individual consumers who inquire about and/or obtain products or services from HCCS for personal, family and household purposes. Please read this Privacy Policy that details HCCS's information use policies and practices.

Strict Security Measures

HCCS takes the security of information very seriously and has established security standards and procedures to prevent unauthorized access to customer information. In addition, HCCS has policies and procedures to limit employee access to information only to those employees with a business reason for accessing such information.

Why HCCS Collects Information

HCCS collects information about you to:

Accurately identify you;

Properly evaluate your request for a bond; and

Comply with certain laws and regulations.

Why HCCS Collects Information

HCCS may collect the following types of nonpublic personal information from you and outside sources:

Data you provide on your application and other forms you provide HCCS, such as name, address and occupation;

Your transactions with HCCS, such as your account balance, payment history and claims history;

Credit history from consumer reporting firms.

HCCS has established procedures so that the information we collect is accurate, current and complete. You have the right to access and request correction of recorded nonpublic personal information and may do so by referring to HCCS's Notice of Information Practices statement below. You should also be aware that information obtained from a report prepared by an insurance-support organization may be retained by the insurance-support organization and disclosed to other persons.

Information We Share

Depending on the type of relationship you have with HCCS, we may share or disclose the information we collect from you, such as your claims history and payment history, with HCCS affiliates, as well as with unaffiliated third parties, to the extent necessary to service you and your bond as completely as possible. HCCS reserves the right to share all information we collect as this policy describes.

Under the law, HCCS is permitted to share identification information with its affiliates, as well as information related to the transactions and experiences we have with our customers. We also disclose information to complete transactions initiated by you when you request or authorize the disclosure, or if the disclosure is required by law. At times it is necessary to disclose information to enforce or apply the terms and conditions of any agreement we have with you and to protect the rights, property, or safety of HCCS, our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations, including governmental law enforcement authorities, to detect or prevent fraud, criminal activity, material misrepresentations or material non-disclosures in connection with insurance transactions.
We may also disclose the information we collect from you to nonaffiliated third parties, as permitted by law. For example, we may provide information to:

Government and administrative entities to respond to subpoenas, search warrants, orders and audits;

Reinsurers and financial auditors;

Another party, or its representative, involved in the purchase, sale or merger of all or part of HCCS and its affiliates.

Whatever the reason for sharing information, we require strict confidentiality by the receiving parties and limit the use of the information to the purpose for which it was disclosed. HCCS will not sell your personal information to unaffiliated third parties, nor will it provide your personal information to third parties, doing business on HCCS's behalf, for their own marketing purposes.

Former Customers

If you end your relationship with HCCS, we will adhere to the information policies and practices described in this policy.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to change our Privacy Policy. If we make a material change to our Privacy Policy, we will notify you before we put it into effect.

Notice of Information Practices

In some circumstances, it may be necessary for HCCS to collect additional information about you from third parties. For example, HCCS may collect your credit history from consumer reporting firms.

In certain situations, in order to correctly underwrite your bond, it may be necessary for HCCS, without your authorization, to disclose some of the personal or privileged information we collect about you to third parties. For example, in order to conduct our business we must exchange some information about you with our underwriters and claims representatives and with other insurance companies that may reinsure your bond or with whom you have had other insurance policies.

Of course, you have the right to have access to the information collected about you contained in our file, as well as the right to request that we correct, amend, or delete information that you feel is incorrect. If we agree with you, we will correct our information and reconsider our decision. If we disagree, you may submit a brief statement explaining what you feel is the correct information. We will include your statement in our file.

You also have the right to a more detailed statement and description of HCCS's information practices. If you would like HCCS to provide you with such a statement, please write us at: HCC Surety Group, 601 S. Figueroa Street Suite 1600; Los Angeles, CA 90017.

While HCC SURETY GROUP provides the information on this Website to anyone, we retain copyright on all text and graphic images. As such, one copy of the contents of this Website may be viewed, copied and downloaded for your own personal non-commercial use, provided that this Legal Disclaimer and Notice of Copyright appear in all copies. The contents of this Website may not be modified or used in any manner other than as expressly permitted by the immediately preceding sentence, including without limitation, utilization by reference or the establishment of a link, without the prior written consent of HCC SURETY GROUP.
HCC SURETY GROUP reserves the right at any and all times and in its sole discretion to change the content of this Website and the products and services referenced hereon. HCC SURETY GROUP reserves all other rights.

HCC Insurance Holdings and the HCC logo and HCC SURETY GROUP and HCC SURETY GROUP logo are service marks of HCC Insurance Holdings, Inc. ("HCC") and HCC SURETY GROUP, respectively, and the names, logos and products of the other HCC group companies referenced hereon are either service marks or registered service marks of such companies. Other product and company names referenced herein may be the service marks of their respective owners.

Disclaimer of Liability

HCC SURETY GROUP maintains this Website as a service to the Internet community. The information contained on this Website is subject to change without notice and HCC SURETY GROUP assumes no commitment to update the information contained herein. You hereby acknowledge that any reliance upon such information shall be at your sole risk. This service and all such information is provided on an "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL HCC BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY OTHER DAMAGES OF ANY KIND WHICH MAY ARISE OUT OF ANY PERSON'S ACCESS OR INABILITY TO ACCESS THIS WEBSITE OR RELIANCE ON THE INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THIS WEBSITE.

The World Wide Web exists across public networks, many of which are insecure. This Website uses the security features of Netscape and Internet Explorer on most forms on this site, however, HCC cannot guarantee the security of the in-transit information. HCC SURETY GROUP disclaims any and all liability for interception by unauthorized persons and for any computer viruses that may be loaded into your computer as a result of the downloading of any information from this or any other Website. The descriptions of products and services contained on this Website are intended to provide a reference guide to the types of products and services offered by the HCC group of companies and are not intended to be relied upon by clients or business partners. Some products and services referenced on this Website may not be available in all areas. Please contact us directly if you wish to obtain specific information concerning the products and services referenced on this Website.

Disclaimer of Endorsement

The HCC stock pricing information appearing on the third party Website linked to this Website is updated periodically from a source other than HCC. HCC and HCC SURETY GROUP do not assume any responsibility for the accuracy of such pricing information or any other materials included on such third party website. Accordingly, such information must not be used for any formal analysis or estimation.

All links and frames of this Website to third party sites are provided as a convenience only. HCC SURETY GROUP does not control or endorse the information and content contained on any such sites, or their sponsors.

HCC SURETY GROUP is under no obligation to maintain any link on this Website and may remove any such link at any time in its sole discretion for any reason whatsoever.

Disclaimer of Privacy

Except as otherwise provided herein, by providing information through the use of this Website (such as inquiries, comments, suggestions or ideas) to HCC SURETY GROUP, the visitor agrees that such information is provided on a non-confidential basis and that HCC SURETY GROUPshall have unlimited rights to use (or not use), distribute (or not distribute), reproduce (or not reproduce), and disclose (or not disclose) such information worldwide as HCC SURETY GROUP deems appropriate, without compensation or acknowledgment of its source. Your Company Name shall be free to use any ideas, concepts, know-how or techniques contained in any information a visitor provides HCC SURETY GROUP through this Website.

Should you have any questions or comments about our privacy policies or practice, please direct them to the HCC Legal Department (Webmaster: use the mailto tag: legal@hcch.com) .

Jurisdictional Issues

This Website is controlled and operated by HCC SURETY GROUP from its offices within the State of California , United States of America. HCC makes no representation that materials on http://www.hccsurety.com are appropriate or available for use in other locations. Those who choose to access this Website from other locations do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with applicable local laws.

The information contained on this Website is not an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy any security. No security is offered or will be sold in any jurisdiction in which such offer or solicitation, purchase or sale would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction

Must a court of competent jurisdiction hold or find any portion or provision of any of the disclaimers appearing hereon illegal, non-enforceable, or invalid the remainder of the disclaimer or disclaimers shall remain in full force and effect in that case and in all other cases.
Forward Looking Statements

The information contained on this Website contains certain "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which are intended to be covered by the safe harbors created by those laws. These forward-looking statements include information about possible or assumed future results of our operations. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, included or incorporated by reference on this Website that address activities, events or developments that we expect or anticipate may occur in the future, including such things as future capital expenditures, business strategies, competitive strengths, goals, growth of our businesses and operations, plans and references to future successes may be considered forward-looking statements. Also, when we us words
such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "plan," "probably" or similar expressions, we are making forward-looking statements.

Many risks and uncertainties may impact the matters addressed in these forward-looking statements. Many possible events or factors could affect out future financial results and performance. These could cause our results or performance to differ materially from those we express in our forward-looking statements. Although we believe that the assumptions underlying our forward-looking statements are reasonable, any of these assumptions, and therefore also the forward-looking statements based on these assumptions, could themselves prove to be inaccurate. In light of the significant uncertainties inherent in the forward-looking statements included on this Website, our inclusion of this information is not a representation by us or any other person that our objectives and plans will be achieved.

Our forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made and we will not update these forward-looking statements unless the securities laws require us to do so. In light of these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking events discussed on this Website may not occur.

Employment Opportunities

HCC SURETY GROUP is an equal opportunity employer, dedicated to a policy of non-discrimination in employment on any basis including race, color, age, sex, religion, disability or national origin. Consistent with the American Disabilities Act, applicants may request accommodations needed to participate in the application process.